Tag: Thug Notes

In a previous post I offered a solution to the question, “Does Hamlet love Ophelia”. This is just one of many questions we can ask when talking about Shakespeare’s most famous play. I’d love to sit with literary scholars to look at how Queen Gertrude knew the details of Ophelia’s death. How is it that she knows exactly how the drowning took place? “There is a willow grows askant the brook… There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds, As one incapable of her own distress”… Who witnessed it? Was it the Queen? Why didn’t anyone pull the crazed girl from the water before her heavy skirt pulled her down?

This is the beauty of Hamlet. If we look closely and critically, we find many aspects in need of examination. Though I have a long list of question concerning this play, there is one I’ve never considered: Are we all Hamlets? Leave it to Professor Sweet to pose such a deep question. Watch his summary then leave a comment; let’s talk Hamlet!